This invention relates generally to headwear such as caps for wearing on a head, and more particularly it concerns a brimmed cap provided with an unoccluded opening in or near the front for contemporaneously providing shade for a wearer's eyes and face, and allowing an accumulation of the wearer's bangs to extend through the opening.
Hats provided with openings for allowing a wearer's hair to extend therethrough are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,854 to Kronenberger discloses a head wear piece in the form of a baseball hat which has a bill joined to a crown configured to accommodate the head of a wearer. When in place on a wearer's head, the bill faces forwardly and an opening in the back of the hat is provided for allowing an accumulation of hair to pass therethrough and extend in a pony-tail fashion.
While Kronenberger attempts to solve the problem of enabling an individual with an accumulation of hair to wear a baseball hat, the attempt falls short of providing a truly versatile hat because Kronenberger is only concerned with allowing a wearer to extend their hair rearwardly of the hat. That is, a wearer of Kronenberger's hat would only be able to extend the hair on or near the rear part of their head through the opening provided therein. A person with an accumulation of front bangs would find Kronenberger's hat awkward to wear because they would have to either tuck their bangs up under the front of the cap (which maybe hot and uncomfortable), part their bangs on either side of the front of the cap (which would not necessarily keep their bangs out of their eyes), or crush/flatten the bangs down upon the forehead which would not only be uncomfortable, but would cause the forehead to sweat and leave a crease across the bangs when the hat was removed. Additionally, a person who desires to ventilate the front portion of their head for the purpose of remaining cool would be unable to do so with Kronenberger's hat. Furthermore, Kronenberger's hat does not shade a wearer's face and eyes and contemporaneously deflect their front bangs.
With the above shortcomings in mind, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a cap for wearing with an unoccluded aperture, or opening, allowing a wearer to extend their front bangs therethrough. The provided opening, therefore, exposes the bangs region of the wearer's hairline.
It is another object to provide a brimmed cap with an aperture for allowing a wearer to extend their front bangs therethrough, wherein the aperture is positioned so that the brim shields or protects a wearer from the sun, and contemporaneously deflects the wearer's bangs from around their face.
It is another object to provide a sports cap which provides an individual who is taking part in sporting events with increased visibility by shielding their eyes from sunlight and keeping their hair out of their eyes.
It is yet another object to provide a cap which is comfortable and stylish to wear, and simple and inexpensive to manufacture.
The invention achieves these and other objects in the form of a cap which includes a crown defining an opening for receiving the head of a wearer, a brim having an edge which is connected to the crown, and an aperture in the crown adjacent the brim for allowing an accumulation of the wearer's hair to extend therethrough and be deflected, while contemporaneously providing shade for the wearer's face.
These and additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood after a consideration of the drawings and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment.